Reports on Religious Freedom:
Bahrain

(2001)

The Constitution states that Islam is the
official religion and also provides for freedom of religion;
however, there were some limits on this right.

There was no change in the status of respect
for religious freedom during the period covered by this report.
In the past, the Government did not tolerate political dissent,
including from religious groups or leaders; however, by February
14, 2001, the Amir had pardoned and released all remaining
political prisoners and religious leaders. The Government
continues to subject both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims to governmental
control and monitoring, and there is some government discrimination
against Shi'a Muslims. Members of other religions who practice
their faith privately do so without interference from the
Government.

Relations among religions in society are
generally amicable; however, Shi'a Muslims, who constitute
the majority of the population, sometimes resent minority
Sunni Muslim rule.

The U.S. Government discusses religious
freedom with the Government in the context of its overall
dialog and policy of promoting human rights.

Section I. Religious Demography

The country has a total area of 231 square
miles, and its population is approximately 700,000. The citizen
population is 98 percent Muslim; Jews and Christians constitute
the remaining 2 percent. Muslim citizens belong to the Shi'a
and Sunni branches of Islam, with Shi'a constituting as much
as two-thirds of the indigenous population.

Foreigners, mostly from South Asia and
other Arab countries, constitute approximately 38 percent
of the total population. Roughly half of resident foreigners
are non-Muslim, including Christians, Jews, Hindus, Baha'is,
Buddhists, and Sikhs.

There is no information available regarding
the numbers of atheists in the country.

The American Mission Hospital, which is
affiliated with the National Evangelical Church, has operated
in the country for over a century. The church adjacent to
the hospital holds weekly services and also serves as a meeting
place for other Protestant denominations.

Section II: Status of Religious Freedom

Legal/Policy Framework

The Constitution states that Islam is the
official religion and also provides for freedom of religion;
however, there were some limits on this right. In the past,
the Government did not tolerate political dissent, including
from religious groups or leaders; however, by February 14,
2001, the Amir had pardoned and released all political prisoners
and detainees, including Shi'a clerics. The Government continues
to subject both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims to governmental control
and monitoring, and there is some government discrimination
against Shi'a Muslims. Members of other religions who practice
their faith privately do so without interference from the
Government, and are permitted to maintain their own places
of worship and display the symbols of their religion.

Every religious group must obtain a permit
from the Ministry of Justice and Islamic affairs in order
to operate. Holding a religious meeting without a permit
is illegal. There were no reports of religious groups being
denied a permit.

The High Council for Islamic Affairs is
charged with the review and approval of all clerical appointments
within both the Sunni and Shi'a communities, and maintains
program oversight for all citizens studying religion abroad.

The civil and criminal legal systems consist
of a complex mix of courts, based on diverse legal sources,
including Sunni and Shi'a Shari'a (Islamic law), tribal law,
and other civil codes and regulations.

The Government has declared the Shi'a religious
celebration of Ashura to be a 2-day national holiday and
allows Shi'a to stage public demonstrations during the holiday.
As a gesture of continued conciliation toward the Shi'a community,
the Amir donated rice and lamb to approximately 500 Shi'a
community centers for the 2001 Ashura.

Notable dignitaries from virtually every
religion and denomination visit the country and frequently
meet with the Government and civic leaders.

In 1999 Amir Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa publicly
called for religious tolerance, and in November of the same
year, he met with Pope John Paul II and established diplomatic
relations with the Vatican.

Restrictions on Religious Freedom

The Government funds, monitors, and closely
controls all official religious institutions. These include
Shi'a and Sunni mosques, Shi'a Ma'tams (community centers),
Shi'a and Sunni Waqfs (charitable foundations), and the religious
courts, which represent both the Ja'afari (Shi'a) and Maliki
(Sunni) schools of Islamic jurisprudence. While the Government
rarely interferes with what it considers legitimate religious
observations, it has, in the past, actively suppressed any
activity deemed overtly political in nature. The Government
permits public religious events, most notably the large annual
commemorative marches by Shi'a, but such events are monitored
closely by the police.

In the past, the Government occasionally
closed mosques and Ma'tams for allowing political demonstrations
to take place on or near their premises or to prevent religious
leaders from delivering political speeches during Friday
prayer and sermons; however, there were no reported closures
of Ma'tams or mosques during the period covered by this report.
In past years, the Government detained religious leaders
for delivering political sermons or for allowing such sermons
to be delivered in their mosques. The Government also has
appropriated or withheld funding in order to reward or punish
particular individuals or places of worship. However, there
were no reports of such detentions or funding restrictions
during the period covered by this report.

There are no restrictions on the number
of citizens permitted to make pilgrimages to Shi'a shrines
and holy sites in Iran, Iraq, and Syria, although stateless
residents who do not possess Bahraini passports often have
difficulties arranging travel to religious sites abroad.
However, the Government began to address the problem during
the period covered by this report by granting citizenship
to over 4,000 previously stateless residents. The Government
monitors travel to Iran and scrutinizes carefully those who
choose to pursue religious study there.

Although there are notable exceptions,
the Sunni Muslim minority enjoys a favored status. Sunnis
predominate because the Sunni ruling family is supported
by the armed forces, the security service, and powerful Sunni
and Shi'a merchant families. Sunnis receive preference for
employment in sensitive government positions and in the managerial
ranks of the civil service. Shi'a citizens are not allowed
to hold significant posts in the defense and internal security
forces. However, since April 1999, Shi'a have been allowed
to be employed in the enlisted ranks of the Bahrain Defense
Force and with the Ministry of the Interior, two bodies in
which Shi'a had been denied employment during previous years.

The political dynamic of Sunni predominance
in the past has led to incidents of unrest between the Shi'a
community and the Government. There were no reports of significant
political or religious unrest during the period covered by
this report.

The Government discourages proselytizing
by non-Muslims and prohibits anti-Islamic writings. However,
Bibles and other Christian publications are displayed and
sold openly in local bookstores that also sell Islamic and
other religious literature. Religious tracts of all branches
of Islam, cassettes of sermons delivered by Muslim preachers
from other countries, and publications of other religions
are readily available. However, a government-controlled proxy
server prohibits user access to internet sites considered
to be antigovernment or anti-Islamic. The software used is
unreliable and often inhibits access to uncontroversial sites
as well.

Shari'a governs the legal rights of women.
Specific rights vary according to Shi'a or Sunni interpretations
of Islamic law, as determined by the individual's faith,
or by the courts in which various contracts, including marriage,
have been made. While both Shi'a and Sunni women have the
right to initiate a divorce, religious courts may refuse
the request. Although local religious courts may grant a
divorce to Shi'a women in routine cases, occasionally Shi'a
women seeking divorce under unusual circumstances must travel
abroad to seek a higher ranking opinion than that available
in the country. Women of either branch may own and inherit
property and may represent themselves in all public and legal
matters. In the absence of a direct male heir, a Shi'a woman
may inherit all property. In contrast, a Sunni woman--in
the absence of a direct male heir--inherits only a portion
as governed by Shari'a; the balance is divided among brothers,
uncles, and male cousins of the deceased.

In divorce cases, the courts routinely
grant Shi'a and Sunni women custody of daughters under the
age of 9 and sons under age 7, although custody usually reverts
to the father once the children reach those ages. In all
circumstances except mental incapacitation, the father, regardless
of custody decisions, retains the right to make certain legal
decisions for his children, such as guardianship of any property
belonging to the child, until the child reaches legal age.
A noncitizen woman automatically loses custody of her children
if she divorces their citizen father.

Some women complain that admission polices
at the National University are aimed at increasing the number
of male students at the expense of qualified female applicants,
especially Shi'a women. Nevertheless, women make up the majority
of students at the country's universities.

Abuses of Religious Freedom

Until February 14, 2001, the Government
had held in detention hundreds of Shi'a, including religious
leaders, for offenses involving "national security."
In June 1999, the Government gradually began releasing incarcerated
individuals as part of an Amiri decree calling for the release
or pardon of more than 350 Shi'a political prisoners, detainees,
and exiles. In December 1999 and during 2000, the Amir pardoned
at least another 350 prisoners. On February 6, 2001, the
Amir pardoned an additional 298 political prisoners and detainees,
and pardoned 108 exiles who had requested to return to the
country. By February 14, 2001, the Amir had pardoned and
released all political prisoners and detainees, including
Hassan Sultan and Haji Hassan Jasrallah, two Shi'a clerics
associated with prominent cleric Abdul Amir Al-Jamri, as
well as Shi'a religious leader Shaikh Abdul Wahab Hussein,
who had been in detention for more than 5 years.

On March 8, 2001, Bahraini cleric Shaikh
Issa Qassim, the former head of the Shi'a Religious Party,
returned to the country after an 8-year exile. The Government
permitted large crowds of celebrating Shi'a to greet Qassim
upon his return.

In July 1999, the Amir pardoned Al-Jamri,
who had been in prison since 1996. After his release, the
Government has monitored Al-Jamri's movements. It also denied
him the right to issue marital status certificates, a lucrative
source of income for many clerics. However, since January
2001, the Government has ceased conducting surveillance of
Al-Jamri's residence and permitted him to lead Friday noon
prayers.

There were no reports of religious detainees
or prisoners during the period covered by this report whose
imprisonment could be attributed solely to the practice of
their religion.

Forced Religious Conversion

There were no reports of forced religious
conversion, including of minor U.S. citizens who had been
abducted or illegally removed from the United States, or
of the Government's refusal to allow such citizens to be
returned to the United States.

Section III. Societal Attitudes

Although there are notable exceptions,
the Sunni Muslim minority enjoys a favored status. In the
private sector, Shi'a tend to be employed in lower paid,
less skilled jobs. Educational, social, and municipal services
in most Shi'a neighborhoods, particularly in rural villages,
are inferior to those found in Sunni urban communities. In
an effort to remedy social discrimination, the Government
has built numerous subsidized housing complexes, which are
open to all citizens on the basis of financial need. In order
to ease both the housing shortage and strains on the national
budget, in 1997 the Government revised its policy to permit
lending institutions to finance mortgages on apartment units.

Converts from Islam to other religions
are not well tolerated by society, but some small groups
worship in their homes.

After demonstrations in support of Palestinians
on October 13, 2000, several youths and men reportedly boarded
a bus carrying Catholic parishioners, took Bibles from the
parishioners, and threw some of the Bibles out of the bus
window.

Section IV. U.S. Government Policy

An official written dialog takes place
between U.S. Embassy officials and government contacts on
matters of religion. One such example is the memorandum received
by the Embassy each year from the Government in response
to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Bahrain.